Saturday, February 19, 2011

dying questions

I'm becoming a bit obsessed with this DYE_journey. I've always been a fan of textile arts and dying/fabric painting in particular is something I've practiced since very young.
I never knew I would have to ask myself if dying was an option or not- because of the environmental consecuences it has. I guess, I just never thought about it until now.
THERE IS SO MUCH TO LEARN!

I've continued my quest for the "perfect" dyes for this project. I'm just too deep into the hole to retract and change the entire concept: 

  • TO BEGIN WITH... my inspiration is about "critical weathering", moss and roots.. those things are intensely green, brown and "dirty"... not a lot of white going on...
  • I've ALREADY bought my ecologically friendly (100%organically grown cotton + 100% muesling free merino wool), "natural" yarns (meaning, not colored)
  • developed swatches
  • and fallen too in ♥ with what I'm doing
PLUS, I think that design shouldnt "suffer" because of sustainability, and that there is no need to be "FANATICAL" or "ESTREMIST" to consider yourself  "responsible". The whole idea is to work in a whollistic way, and considering all steps of the process as an opportunity for making "better", ethically concious desitions. There are so many ways we can CHANGE the negative impact we have: 
  • by working with sustainable materials (recycled, organically produced, fairly-traded...)
  • producing things using nicer, slower, less industrial, artigianal methods
  • thinking about reducing our waste, and the unnecessary
  • questioning the message we are trying to convey 
  • pondering about the maintenance and end of life of the products we create...


(just some examples)


so...
since I am using very nice materials, making everything BY HAND (with the help of a mecanical/not elecrical machine), 
to make what I hope will be some beautifull works of art that will both be WORN and EXhibited, are NOT "TRENDY" and will thus last a LIFETIME...
I think it will be okay to use some [non hazardous, non toxic, non chrome, low impact, heavy-metal free ACID dyesm that conform to the Organic Trade Association's Standards x Organic Fiber processing] that I found through ETSY: 
Greener ShadesTM


any comments???

No comments:

Post a Comment